The atmosphere in the bunkhouse that night was subdued.  Noah, Buck, and Ike quietly talked and played cards at the table while Jimmy listened to Theresa as she read from Lou's battered copy of a collection of Shakespeare's plays.  That afternoon's excitement had been a little much for the heavily pregnant Rachel and she and Teaspoon had retired to the main house following supper.  Each of the bunkhouse's occupants watched as Kid paced to and fro over the floor, stopping to glare worriedly out the window every couple of minutes.  Lexi fussed on Kid's shoulder as he paced.  It was well after his bedtime and all the baby was concerned about was that his mama wasn't there to nurse him and put him to bed.

It was well after nine o'clock and as dark as midnight as Kid looked out the window again.  Where is she, he thought.  He tried his best to quiet his son, but Lexi didn't need changed, he didn't want to play, and he wouldn't take the bottle Theresa had prepared for him.  Carefully, Kid shifted Lexi to his other shoulder.  He'd been patting and rubbing the little boy's back, murmuring and soothing him for the last forty-five minutes at least and he was at his wits end as to what else to do to get the little boy to give in to the sleep he was fighting so stubbornly.

"I wish your mama was here too, little guy," he murmured in the baby's ear.  Kid didn't even care if she hated him at the moment as long as she was there, safe and sound.  He knew her well enough to know that she tended to irrationality when she was angry and just prayed that she hadn't gotten into trouble.  Probably just hidin' out somewhere just to make me worry, he thought irritatedly.  Just like her, too, to be so mean just to get back at me.

Buck looked over at Jimmy as he sat on his bunk, Tessa curled up next to him, her eyes fairly drooping with sleep.  The girl was so tired but she refused to sleep until Louise came home.  Jimmy himself was tense with worry, but was trying to hide it, knowing that Theresa was watching his reactions closely.  Seeing his worry would just cause her to panic as well.  So, he absently listened as Theresa read, her little head nearly resting against his shoulder.

"No sign of her when you went out?" Buck whispered at Jimmy.  Jimmy merely shook his head.

<With the rain, maybe she holed up in town or out at the homestead> Ike signed as unobtrusively as possible.

"I checked the hotel," Jimmy replied quietly.  "She hadn't checked in there and no one had seen her at all."

Noah sighed.  "Well, Lou's a smart woman.  If she don't wanna be found, I think we'd be hard pressed to find her.  For all we know she's out at Silverbirch cursin' up hellfire and torture for Kid and Laura," he whispered.

<Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned they say> Ike signed in reply as he stared at his cards.
 
 

Laura Wilson almost felt like purring as she lay half-dressed among the blankets on the floor of Louise McCloud's empty parlor.  Tom stood and went to add some more wood to the fire in the hearth.  Laura smiled as she watched the muscles in his back flex.  There were several new nail marks embedded in the smooth skin from their tryst.  If only things were different, she thought.  We could be so good together if only he had the respectability the Wilson name demands.

Tom turned around at the hearth and grinned at the vision Laura was amidst the blankets.  Clad only in her undershift, her gold curls touseled, her face still slightly flushed and her eyes bright, she was truly the most beautiful woman he'd ever met.  Over the weeks they'd spent together, he'd realized that they were so similar.  They'd have a good life together if she'd just get off her high horse about Travis.  I would give you anything you ever wanted, Laura, he thought.  He'd never really wanted Louise McCloud, not after he and Laura had begun meeting in secret.  Tom knew Laura planned on continuing their affair after she and Kid married, and he wasn't so sure he liked the idea.  He found himself becomming jealous of every mention of the man's name.  Why didn't he just drop Laura and court Louise, since he so obviously loved the woman?  Maybe give fellows like Tom a chance at happiness too.

"Just think, baby, if everythin' goes according to plan, I'll have Kid and you'll have Louise's land that you want so badly," Laura commented as Tom rejoined her on the blankets.  "You never did tell me why you want this ol' piece of dirt anyway."

"It ain't the dirt I want, sugar, it's what's on the land that I'm talkin' about," Tom replied, one finger absently stroking her neck.  "You remember Marshal MacCauliffe who used to live here?"

Laura nodded.  She remembered the older man.  He'd been about Marshal Hunter's age and he and his quiet but pretty wife had five children together.  One day, they'd just decided to move back East and mayor Wilson had hired Sam Cain as marshal of Sweetwater.  "I remember him," she said softly.  "The MacCauliffes went back East a few years ago.  Why?"

"Well, ya see, darlin' they never headed back East."

Laura sat up quickly, her eyes large with anticipation and curiosity.  "They didn't?  How do you know?  Tom, you didn't do anythin' to that nice man did you?" she asked in shock.

Anderson's face clouded over, annoyed that she should think he'd done something illegal.  "Aw, hell sugar I'd never outright murder a man, you know that.  Might shoot 'im up in self defense but never outright murder!" he protested.  "No, one of the men who used to work for me came in one night drunk as a skunk about four or five months ago and said he'd just gotten rid of that rich bastard MacCauliffe and his family.  Seems, MacCauliffe had a secret stash of treasure he'd liberated from a passing gambler.  Well, ol' Joe seen it through the window one day while he was out there.  He went out and got himself all liquored up and tried to take liberties with Mrs. MacCauliffe.  Well, the marshal came in from town and caught him and ol' Joe shot 'im right there in front of the family.  Shot the rest of them for bein' witnesses and drug 'em out to the woods.  Bodies are still there if ya look in the right place.  Anyways, Joe never found where the marshal hid the treasure and I been lookin' for it ever since he told me about it."

Laura shuddered in horror and intrigue.  Maybe they were laying right on top of the treasure!  "So that's why you want Louise off the land," she said quietly, "so you can find the loot."

"What, you thought I actually wanted her?" Tom asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah."

Anderson laughed and pulled her to him, laying back against the blankets.  "I don't want Louise McCloud any more than any other man might if he were hard up for female company.  She don't hold a candle to you, sugar," he assured her, kissing her deeply.  "Sides, a body's more likely to wind up shot in her bed if they ain't too careful.  I seen the way she looks at Travis and let me tell ya, honey, there ain't nothin' more aggravatin' than a woman thinkin' about another man while you're with 'er."

Laura settled herself on top of him with a grin.  "Well, I want you to know that it's always just you and me here like this," she said softly.  "I was never into more than two people sharin' a bed."  They both laughed slightly as they took up where they'd left off earlier.

Louise quietly dismounted from Lightning and wound her way around the back of the house.  Easing herself soundlessly through the back door, she proceeded through the house until she stood just around the corner of the wall separating the parlor from the hallway.  She crouched down, her heart pounding as she listened to Laura's conversation with Tom Anderson.

Tom Anderson!  Why that little wench, Lou thought.  She wondered how long they'd been meeting and more importantly how long they'd been doing it here in her house.  Eww, she thought.  Lou made a mental note to scour the entire house from top to bottom before allowing anyone to stay there.  Suddenly, the implications of the lovers' rendezvous hit her and she nearly fell over at the sudden rush of guilt.  Maybe Kid was telling the truth when he tried to tell her the baby wasn't his.  She hadn't been able to listen as he tried to explain because the hurt had been too strong.  Now she wished she had given him at least that much of a chance.  But what was Laura up to trying to masquerade the child as Kid's when there was a possibility that it wasn't?

Lou listened in horror as Anderson told about how his man Joe had murdered the MacCauliffe family for their fortune.  A fortune that the old marshal had stumbled on in good fortune, that he'd no doubt counted on to start a new life once they got back East.  And the bodies buried in her woods!  She shuddered at the thought hoping that the MacCauliffes' spirits were resting and not wandering around her homestead.

She peeked around the corner of the wall and saw Laura and Anderson's kisses becoming more and more passionate. Well, enough was enough!  Lou was going to get to the bottom of this once and for all.  The only option she could think of was to confront the trespassers and send them packing.  She'd think about the affair later.

Slowly and cautiously, she came out from behind the corner, her pistol held in front of her.  Lou walked carefully over the floorboards.  When she was within ten feet of the lovers' passionate embrace, the board she stepped on creaked.  Taking advantage of the situation, Lou lowered her gun until it pointed directly at the startled couple who'd ceased their lovemaking at the sound.  She cocked the pistol, the click loud in the silence.

"Louise?!" Laura squeaked, hastily righting her rumpled shift to cover her better.  "W-what are you doin' here?"

Lou's face was impassive, her eyes cold as stone as she allowed the anger to fill her.  "I own this house if you remember, Laura," Lou snapped.  "But that don't explain what you're doin' here with Tom Anderson ruttin' like you was a two-bit whore in a whorehouse!"

Anderson stood and extended a hand down to Laura, his eyes never leaving Louise's angry countenance.  "We can explain ya see...."

"Don't bother.  Do you honestly think I'm so stupid that I can't see what's right in front of me?"  Lou looked at Anderson, her gaze derisive and withering, causing him to wish he'd grabbed his shirt from the floor.  "Why in hell would you want to be another notch on her bedpost, Anderson?"

Laura lunged at Lou.  "You bitch!"  she screamed.  "How dare you...?"

Louise couldn't help but laugh at the impotent fury on the blonde woman's face, a tight smile lingering.  "Now ain't that the pot calling the kettle black?  Have you told Tom here your big news, Laura?"

Anderson's head came up quickly and he looked over at Laura.  "What news?" he asked seriously.

The look on Laura's face was priceless to Lou.  She was definitely feeling the strong effects of being in power and it felt really good.  Lou knew she should probably be merciful, but she had to admit she liked the position she was in now.  This woman had wrecked havoc on her life earlier that day and she'd be damned if she was going to pass this opportunity up.  "Well, Miss Wilson here, decided to come out to the station this afternoon and casually drop the news that she's expecting."

"Expecting?" Tom asked in a hushed voice.  His face hardened as realization dawned on him.  "You're pregnant?!  And just when were you goin' to tell me about this?"

"She was never going to, Tom," Lou said quietly.  The pieces were all starting to come together now.  "She was gonna pass that child off as Kid's knowing full well it might be yours.  Laura was so caught up in hurtin' me she was gonna cut you off from bein' father to your child."

Anderson was furious.  "Might be?!" he exclaimed.  He turned on Laura.  "Might be?!  You know damn well it is mine.  You ain't ever been with Travis.  You know it and I know it 'cause you been meetin' me this whole time."

Laura stumbled backwards away from Tom as he advanced on her.  She was feeling trapped and glanced around for any way out.  Fear and anger at Louise combined into a stange, jumbled mess.  "T-Tom, baby, I was gonna tell you, I swear...."

"There ain't no way I'm lettin' Travis raise my child," Tom bellowed, still approaching as Lou looked on.  "I done a lotta things wrong in my life, but this is where I draw the line Laura.  You told me you took care of everythin'!  It's one thing to be foolin' around together but that changes when there's a kid involved.  A kid oughta be raised by his parents, his real parents."

Suddenly, Laura fell onto her backside, her feet having gotten tangled up in something.  She reached down to untangle her legs and her fingers came in contact with the hard leather of Anderson's gunbelt.  Her eyes flew to Louise the source of all her trouble, all her grief and consternation.  She just couldn't keep her mouth shut.  There was no way she was going to let Louise ruin her life and get Kid.  He was her dream, her good-looking, respectable, hard-working husband and she'd be damned if anyone was going to steal her dream with her whore's tricks.  Laura pulled the pistol from the holster and, without thinking further, she raised the gun and fired it at the bane of her existence.

Lou never saw the shot that came at her from Anderson's gun until it was too late.  There was a burst of white hot pain as the bullet imbedded itself deeply in her left shoulder just above her breast.  The impact threw her backwards, her own gun clattering to the floor.  The room spun sickly and stars lit up behind her eyes before the world was lost to her in a fog of darkness.

Tom's eyes widened in shock.  "Jesus, Laura, you shot her.  You shot her!" he exclaimed.

Laura's eyes were hard and angry as she turned to him, the gun still in her hand.  "And I'll shoot you, too, if you fool around any more," she swore.  She tossed his clothes at him.  "Get dressed, now, and let's get outta here."

Anderson shrugged into his clothes quickly.  "I ain't leavin' 'til we're sure she's okay," he insisted.  "If she's dead...."

"It won't matter if there's no body, idiot," Laura replied.  She grabbed the firepoker and scattered the glowing logs out of the fireplace and onto the wooden floor.  "Poor, Louise, died in a tragic fire leaving those beautiful children behind.  Of course, Kid will be inconsolable, but I'll help him through as best I can."  At the look of protestation on the man's face, she pulled the trigger back a second time with a loud click.  "And you're not gonna say a word about anythin' or I'll tell them all that you wrote the notes we sent her and I'll also be sure to let Marshal Hunter know about why you wanted Louise's land."

Tom cursed before following the half-dressed Laura outside to their mounts.  As the passed through the front door, the fire had already spread to the sheer curtains covering the windows from prying eyes.

"We'll ride out towards town and then double back," Laura decided.  "Someone from the station should see the smoke, but by the time they do, it'll be too late for dear, sweet, Louise."

Anderson shuddered but thought better of crossing the angry woman brandishing his own gun.  He couldn't doubt she'd feel no compunction about shooting him as well.  So, they rode off towards Sweetwater.  As they crested the small hill in front of the house, Tom turned back around to see flames in the parlor window.  His eyes closed tightly and he prayed that the former express riders at the station would see the smoke in time.
 

Chapter 17